STANDING UP FOR PEACE

Author: Tal Mitnik, 18-year old Israeli sentenced to prison for refusing to enlist.

"This land has a problem- there are two nations with an undeniable connection to this place. But even with all the violence in the world, we could not erase the Palestinian people or their connection to this land, just as the Jewish people or our connection to the same land cannot be erased. The problem here is supremacy, the belief that this land belongs to only one people. Violence cannot solve the situation, neither by Hamas nor by Israel. There is no military solution to a political problem.

After the October 7 terrorist attack, a revenge campaign began not only against Hamas but against all Palestinian people. Indiscriminate bombings of residential neibourhoods and refugee camps in Gaza, full militray and political support for settler violence in the West Bank and political persecution on an unprecedented scale inside Israel.

An alternative must be put in place, an alternative for Hamas and an alternative to the militaristic societyn in which we live. Change will come when we recognize the suffering of the Palestinian people over the years, and that this suffering is the result of Israel policy. Along with recognition must also come justice, correction and the construction of a political infrastructure based on peace, freedom an and equality.

I do not want to take part in the cont!inuation of the oppression and the continuation of the cycle of bloodshed, but to work directly for a solution."